Welcome to the 100-Mile Hike! This series celebrates hikes -- long, steep, exhausting hikes, on trails where you can walk for miles and maybe not see another person all day. There's not much I love more in the geocaching world than a project I can chip away at for weeks or months or even years. This is intended to be one such challenge. It's impossible to do it quickly, and I hope people are enjoying it for years to come.
For this series, I've placed caches on my favorite hiking trails in the South Bay and Santa Cruz mountains. The minimum number of miles required to find them all is really only about 65, but I know you're not the type of people to do only the bare minimum. If you extend your hikes to find other caches or hike loops, it's easily over 80. While the challenge is to hike 100 miles, your mileage will vary. "The 100-Mile Hike" is the spirit of this series; all you need to get to the final is to collect all of the keywords.
Details & Cache List
Each cache has a keyword. Note the keywords to unlock this final. Once you have all of the keywords, arrange them in alphabetical order and enter them into the custom checker. For example, if your keywords are "sky", "tree", and "bear", enter "bearskytree" to receive the final coordinates. Optional: You may skip one of these caches if you'd like. Maybe you DNF one or it's too hot or you just don't like one of the locations. Any 9 out of the 10 keywords will unlock the final. (As of 12/11/20, any 9 out of the 11 keywords will unlock the final.)
The 100-Mile Hike: The Albino Redwood
The 100-Mile Hike: Overlooking Sand Point
The 100-Mile Hike: Wilder Backcountry
The 100-Mile Hike: Blue Mountains
The 100-Mile Hike: Cañada del Oro
The 100-Mile Hike: Dutch Flat
The 100-Mile Hike: Mines & Manzanita
The 100-Mile Hike: Peak 2259
The 100-Mile Hike: Coyote Peak
The 100-Mile Hike: The Chalks (Currently unavailable due to park closure)*
The 100-Mile Hike: Phoenix
Enter your keywords in the checker here.
The Final
The final is a drive-up. You drive there and climb straight up. There's sort of a trail for a while, then you just have to figure out the best way. Once you have the coordinates, check the description of nearby caches for some very helpful navigation instructions. The "cliff / falling rocks" attribute applies only for a short distance, and you may be able to navigate around that area. There may be some poison oak. The checker provides two alternate, lower-terrain starting points. Once you're up, it's smooth sailing. The cache is a 50 cal ammo can with swag bags for everyone who finds it. Note that the D/T on this cache page is for the entire series. I would rate this final a D2/T4.5. The attributes are for this final.
I hope you enjoy the trails, the wildlife, forests & ocean, and the stunning views of our amazing home. Happy hunting!
*Update 10/17/20: The final cache narrowly escaped the CZU fire, but two of the other caches in the series are currently unavailable. "The Chalks" in Big Basin was most likely destroyed and will be inaccessible until Big Basin opens again. Current estimates are at least a year. "Peak 2259" in Coe appears to be outside of the fire perimeter, but it will be inaccessible until Coe opens again. The ETA is unknown. I'm planning to put out an 11th cache to allow people to finish the series in the interim. All of the other caches are in great shape and are ready to be found!
*Update 11/29/20: "Peak 2259" is now available!
The Finders
Congratulations to the finders! You're all hiking rock stars.
KendraH
Geokashers
WERDAVE
not2b
bytemobile
Michael_SFBA
Fisherwoman
nozy nabor
GidgetSearches
gw0143
Dr. Flonase (First <18 to Find)
HackinHiker
penguinphloppers
annevoi
FifiBonacci
Mimring
2dsquared
mraudrey
tiptop3
chrisfawcett1
scrabblebird
leesv (Youngest to Find)
7Nails
Abraxas
bluewarble
ecrane
Team Libra
Still haven't had enough? Try The 110-Mile Hike: Pleasanton Ridge by nozy nabor!